They were not. Most NHL stars were not captains because they were almost always playing up a level.
JT was captain of in OHL for 32 games (of 285 games he played in the OHL). That was his only experience as captain at least from the time he was 13 until he was 23 when he became captain of the Islanders.
Rielly was captain of his Midget AAA team for a season when he was 15.
Hyman spent two seasons as captain of the Hamilton Red Wings when he was 17 an 18.
The whole idea of thinking that experience as a captain during their teen years is valuable is extremely stupid. The whole idea that anyone thinks they know who should be captain when we are not in the room is just as stupid.
You don't know much about minor hockey do you? And do you have any idea of how big prep schools are in hockey? Do you have any idea of the different paths one can take to get to the NHL level?
As a coach in minor hockey including Jr B, there is no "playing up" anymore. That stopped 20 years ago. And every coach that has coached minor hockey will agree with me. There are no Atom players playing on a PeeWee team. There are no Peewee aged players playing Bantam. There are no major Bantam aged players playing major Midget. Did you know the Bantam draft is how players get to play is the Q, or OHL or WHL. Once you get to major Midget, they go to Junior A or B teams. Its a harder route. And all the best players in minor hockey teams are given the C and A's. And a rookie in just about every minor hockey system, NEVER wear a letter. But when they become a vet, then they usually get a letter if they are good enough. And that's where they get experience wearing letters. The same with High School hockey. The same with Prep schools.
There are exceptions. One of those exceptions is based on geography. Some towns are too far away from major places and players can have a mis match of teams with different players but those teams are usually house league hockey and there is no hitting.
Other exceptions are the "exceptional status" route and not many are approved anymore.
If a parent thinks their little darlings are better than the competition that they have to play, then the parent, if they have enough money, can find many different avenues for their kid to get different teams to play on, but I assure you, they will have their eyes opened when they find out the same age boys or girls have some amazing teams with coaches that are very experienced. In one particular case, the parent made all the proper applications and was removed from their Bantam team, only to go to a bigger city and not make the team at all. That hurts the Childs development.
The CHL has learned from past mistakes and it takes someone extra special to get exceptional status now. But what happens is they jump straight to jr B or Jr A hockey. Junior B is still part of the minor hockey system, but governed by different by laws. There are some kids that can play up from Midget to Junior A because Junior A is not associated with Minor hockey and have their own set of by laws so if a kid tries out, and is good enough to cut another kid, there is always an uproar from the parents if you can imagine. "your kid got my kid cut from his last year of hockey" says parents of the kid who got cut. There is a whole kettle of worms there and there have been many many people go to court because of this red tape BS.
So stop with the "playing up" BS. Its rare, but 99.9 percent of the kids just go up through the ranks at their age level and by Bantam, they will go into the Bantam draft if they are good enough, then they can go straight to major junior. 15 year olds can only play in 5 games in the WHL for instance. Then its back to Midget for them. Major Junior ages are 16 to 21. They changed the Bantam ages a couple years ago and now Bantam is 13 an 14 with a 15 overlap. Midget is 16 to 17 with a 15 overlap. Depends of the kid and his birthday.
Anyway, sorry for the book, but as I am checking the players and their ages, there are very few excepional players allowed anymore. I think there is a 2 rule in Ontario. Not sure what the rule is nation wide, but its not big.
Because someone is your favourite player is not good enough to name him captain. Its an important position on and off the ice. JT and Rielly are the best bets. And there have been players that had terrible seasons after they were named captain. Thats a lot of pressure to put on a 22 year old.
Here is a list of Captains that had the C removed for various reasons. In a lot of cases its because their production went down. Lets not mess with Matthews head and let him play for a few years wearing an A. JT can groom him.
Top 15 NHL Captains Who Were Stripped Of The 'C'
